OH WHERE, OH WHERE HAVE MY PREVIEWS GONE? PART 2 OF 2

In our last tip, we brought up a problem a lot of users have had with previews. (When viewing a folder as a Web page, selecting a file of a common graphic type--*.bmp, *.gif, and so on--displays a preview of that image in the left pane.) Apparently, after installing certain third-party software programs that mess around with your file associations, these previews disappear. To fix the problem, open the Registry Editor (after backing it up, of course) and navigate your way to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\, where is the type of file you want to preview, such as .gif. With that key selected, click the asterisk key (*) on your numeric keypad to expand all keys within it. In order for preview mode to work for that file type, the following entries need to be there:

Registry Key: [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\ShellEx]

Registry Key: [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920- 11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]

Value: (Default)="{7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC}"

Are you missing any or all of these entries? (Our guess is yes, or you wouldn't be having a problem.) Then you'll need to create them, as follows.

Right-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\, select New, Key, type

ShellEx

and press Enter. Right-click the new ShellEx key, select New, Key, type

{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}

and press Enter. With the key you just created selected, right-click (Default) in the right pane and select Modify. On the Value data line of the Edit String dialog box, type

{7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC}

and click OK.

Oh, and one last reminder: You'll need to repeat these steps for each file type you want to be able to preview. What a mess, eh?

This page last updated: Monday, 24. May 1999 09:46:58 -0500